Visual Writing and Thinking

When thinking of what I wanted to do for this project, I originally had some difficulty. I wasn’t finding inspiration with the things around me that would be cool to integrate with an image. However, I was looking at a bag of apples I got from the farmers’ market in my room and was hit with my idea. I decided to draw an apple and integrate a knife I use for cutting my apples into the image.

Though I had my idea, I didn’t know how to draw an apple. So like most artists, I googled “how to draw an apple.” I looked at the image results and drew a rough outline in pencil. Before I started coloring, I wondered how I would create depth in the image. I vaguely remembered how to shadow and used the side of my pencil to add that extra dimension. Thankfully while I colored, the shadow was maintained by the graphite under the ink. To add the knife, I cut into the paper and put part of the blade behind the paper in order to create the illusion that the knife was in the apple. After taking the image, I used the basic photo editor to crop and filter the image into how it is viewed on the website. The name came to me instantly from childhood stories of Johnny Appleseed

Starting at the end of 2017, P&G, the company who owns Tide, has been under backlash after hundreds of memes surfaced of teenagers arguing that their Tide Pods look delicious and should be considered a snack instead of laundry detergent. I mean, just look at them. The brightly shaped pods truly resemble some of the candy I have grown up eating. To keep up with the current stream of memes that are still pouring in from various media sites, for my Sunday Sketch, I decided to put my own spin on trend. My sketch features a large candy bin with a Post-it type note telling people to eat the treats. I always have a huge box of the pods in my room because they are so convenient to use as a college student so my eyes were initially drawn to them as I was looking around my room for ideas. However, as we all should know, Tide Pods should definitely not be consumed as they are actually toxic and its only purpose is to be laundry detergent. 

In the beginning, I was vey unsure of what objects I was going to use.  Unfortunately, I limited my self to the contents that were on my desk.  However, after about fifteen minutes, I searched around my room.  Still, I could not find anything to use.  Then, I began to think of a new strategy.  I thought about what I possibly would want to draw.  Naturally, I decided to go back to my childhood.  Upon further introspection, I could not discover anything in my childhood, whether it be memories, shows, or toys, that I would want to draw.  Eventually, I randomly decided to look for a one in my drawer.  I was pleasantly greeted by a box of thumbtacks.

For as far back as I can remember, when I was young, anything sharp was related to swords.  Thus, I began to contemplate who uses swords, albeit short swords.  I finally mulled pirates.  Then, everything else was significantly easier.  I decided to add all the notable characteristics of pirates (beards, peg leg, a hook hand).  Eventually, I just thought it would be cool to have the captain being forced to walk the plank with his “sword” while one of the shipmatespointmd his sword at him.

To access prompt, click here

I purposefully read the prompt for this sketch assignment a few days in advance because I knew it would take me time to brainstorm a solid idea.  I am so glad I did because for three days straight it felt like I tried to picture every object that I came across incorporated into a sketch.  Nothing was coming to me until I took a piece of gum out of my desk draw while studying and noticed the speckled pattern on its shiny outer shell for the first time.  As a result of the recent snow days we had, it hit my that I can turn these white and blue pieces of gum into snowflakes falling from the sky.  Since the freshness of super minty gum is commonly compared to the cool temperatures of ice, I decided to title my sketch “An Icy Fresh day.”  The day pictured is bright, vibrant, and sunny.  This freshness of the landscape is a result of the snow falling which could clear up any dullness.

Since the pieces of gym are very minimalistic, with the addition of a shiny speckled touch, I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate them into a cartoon like version of a landscape.  Then, it was more of a spur of the moment decision- that turned into doubling the assignment a single sketch- to put cotton ball pieces on the clouds to make them fluffy and more realistic.

http://eng101s18.davidmorgen.org/assignments/sketch/sketch-3-sunday-sketches/